July 26, 2012

As The Earnest Feminist Awaits Her White Knight...

Following the Aurora shooting we get the inevitable silliness from a feminist troubled by the disproportion between men shielding their girlfriends from bullets and women shielding their boyfriends from bullets.

I admire the self-refuting nature of her presentation. She advances both of these propositions:

(1) Heroism has never had a gender: just tell that to Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, or any of the female soldiers who risk their lives daily in our military;

and, following a mention of the United 93 action on 9/11,

(2) We just know it feels good to have heroes and it feels good to sit down on an airplane and think, “Maybe there is someone like Todd Beamer on this flight.”

Do men really sit and hope that someone else will be Todd Beamer? My impression is that we aspire to be Todd Beamer, if situationally appropriate. As to women's aspirations, well, the author just described hers. Which is fine - if she is 120 pounds of coiled literary angst, she may not be the best choice to grapple with a trained terrorist anyway.

As to her point - if "heroism" includes moral courage, as it should, then women are well represented by examples from history. If heroism is limited to brief displays of physical courage, there are surely many more examples involving men. That seems to follow from both cultural norms and basic biology, since the average guy is bigger and stronger than the average women.

That said, absolutely no one is surprised when a mother is physically fierce in protecting her children, as exemplified by Patricia Legarreta, who rallied her two young ones out of the Aurora theater (with help from a young man!) after her boyfriend cut and ran.

And Todd Beamer had help from the stewardesses on United 93. But let's read about some of the guys who took the lead in the scuffling:

This much we know, they were big guys: Bingham was a 6-foot-4 rugby player; Glick, also a rugby player and judo champion; Beamer was 6 foot 1 and 200 pounds, and Nacke was a 5-foot-9, 200-pound weightlifter with a "Superman" tattoo on his shoulder.

Logic, biology and cultural norms all pointed to letting the men lead the way on United 93, and in many other moments of sudden physical peril.

if you ask Andy Sullivan he'll tell you -- over and over-- 10 years ago anyway, gay impulse is programmed and irreversible in homosexual men, as it is in the animal world-- se the famous penguins. As to the failure to find a gay gene?-- 2% of men is a significant number, genetic anomalies affecting a fraction of that number have been ID'd-- he'll tell you that he takes gayness as an article of faith, like his belief in God. When he told me that, I wondered which was chicken and egg-- is Sullivan's faith in God predicated in Sullivan's faith in gayness, because he can't scientifically prove genetic gayness? Not worth caring about, but even with an expert like Sullivan, irreversibly gay at birth is ultimately an article of faith.

Twitter is pretty awesome when it comes to stuff like that (immediate attention to feedback). We really should all send thanks to Bret for positive reinforcement purposes - although I'm not a Twitterer so I don't know if he'd ever see it.

CH-- Andrew Sullivan is most certainly an expert on gayness. He's no scientist, he's a schlock theologian, but Sullivan knows gay. I haven't spoken to him in over 6 years, and I wonder if the AIDS drugs he's been on since the late 90s have affected his intellect and personality, but back in the day, he had a formidable mind, and he was a serious and good man.

That may very well be true, NK.
Most personality disorders appear to be hard wired and irreversible. Whether the hard wiring is genetic, environmental or, most likely, a combination thereof is unknown.

MelR-- all you say is true. So why is benB pushing more QE? The simple truth is what you must see everyday-- the productive classes (rich people and working consumers alike) have gone John Galt-- they will clip coupons and sit back and wait until they are sure the government won't appropriate the value they create. Big bank staffing? -- as that same friend of mine said-- Wall Street is on its back; in NYC area, Fin Serv working stiff comp is down 25% from the salad days and no sign of ever improving.

Oh nonsense; he's an expert on his own experiences but I doubt very much that he understands how lesbians feel nor conservative (real ones; not the lying crap he tries to pawn of about himself) male homos. This illustrates the difficulty in trying to pin down human experience no matter what the sub-group; there are wide variances that are ignored at the peril of being very wrong.

Four female racers were treated for injuries sustained after a pileup during a ladies division race at Speedway 95(local area track) last night.No mention of a white knight,maybe the tow truck driver who cleared the wrecked cars from the track?

CH-- I don't think that's a fair criticism, AS spent years researching the science of the 'gay gene', and personality orientation science to prove that gayness (in men)was a programmed orientation. So he was well read, scholarly in fact. But I do agree, by 2005 he viewed the whole world through the prism of his own gay identity and much stupidity and hilarity has insued. That's enoughabout AS for a while.

Not quite like that out here in the hinterlands. Leaving aside the city I'm sitting in, the economy is humming right along, but with two distinct features. Staying as far out of the goverment's eye as possible and biding their time for it to end. No one discusses it, they just "do what must be done". It's an eye opening, and really refreshing attitude by those who know their "turn" is coming. It's what keeps me getting up in the morning and digging into new things.

I'm working on a new angle right now that has me really excited about the next phase in the world economy.

Try placing the actions of the Pinhead Troika in a framework of grifters working separate crowds of very dumb marks. His gay-for-pay schtick had a negative political value but it got the marks to write a bunch of nice checks. His Lakoff riff was very damaging but it tuned up 13%ers for a moment.

I can't make any sense of the President's actions within an electoral politics framework but I sure can within a "playing the suckers for their last dime" framework. I also wish him the very best in his endeavor. He's bleeding the down ticket races dry as dust and setting up some unnecessary losses for the Dems.

Back at work and just finished reading Clarices wonderful Fourth of July story at PJ Lifestyle. How fun! No one likes glitches, of course, but they do make for a more interesting and suspenseful retelling of events.

Switching topics quite abruptly, how do you suppose we could all band together and lobby that Presidential Debate Commission (or whatever it is called) to dispense with 100% liberal hacks and maybe introduce at least one (i.e., Bret Baier?) fair and balanced moderator?

I call it the Fallacy of the False Middle. Sanctimonious media types like Bill Keller use it to defend themselves on a similar basis all the time, to whit: "I get complaints from both sides of the political divide, so I'm clearly doing something right."

--AS spent years researching the science of the 'gay gene', and personality orientation science to prove that gayness (in men)was a programmed orientation. So he was well read, scholarly in fact.--

If one starts out reading stuff to 'prove' a preconceived answer his results will tend to be less than trustworthy, regardless of how scholarly he seems, especially if the experts he's reading don't even know the answers to questions he purports to know the answers to.

I don't mean stupid in the sense they lack book learnin', I mean stupid in the sense they don't have the sense God gave a billy goat.

Yeah..I'm not sure they are stupid as much as emotionally stunted. It's like libs are stuck in the middle school age. Full of jealousy, drama, tattle-telling, excuse making, laziness, trying to impress the "cool" group,...

Bak in the 1970's the APA removed homosexuality from it's treatment guide by fiat. What I seem to see with men, at least, that there is a combination of predisposition, and then a trigger moment.

We have a friend who was basically brought up gay by his mother. The stories are hilarious, almost like a twisted Southern novel, but in the end he is a libertine who cannot engage in a relationship lasting more than a night.

Something went wrong for him emotionally and now he is in a very lonely place. I think this may tie into the fixation on Judy Garland in one way. Loneliness is a horrible thing for most people.

Other gay friends are completely different, but I do tend to notice there are a lot of unresolved issues and conflicts. Being well adjusted, gay or straight, has become ever more difficult in a dysfunctional world.

I call it the Fallacy of the False Middle. Sanctimonious media types like Bill Keller use it to defend themselves on a similar basis all the time, to whit: "I get complaints from both sides of the political divide, so I'm clearly doing something right."

A friend of mine runs a small music label. Nothing infuriates him more than inaccurate reviews of his releases; and by that he includes factual errors as well as failing to convincingly explain a reaction to the music. One by somebody he knows (who writes for the NYT; or at least used to) prompted an irate response to which he replied "But it stimulated a lot of discussion" which doubled his anger.

Being wrong is never a good strategy no matter how much attention it may garner.

I personally don't know the answer but I watched my godson struggle with it and finally come to terms with it and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I don't think he chose it, because if he had a choice, he would have married and had children and lived the American dream. Instead, he has learned how to live his American dream. He is now a happy, well adjusted mid 30s man, in a loving and committed relationship. If you met him without knowing, you would never know he was gay. He is "out of the closet" but not in your face and certainly not feminine. And all I know is he made me mac n cheese in a play kitchen and smiled happily while I pretended to eat it.

I sure wouldn't call TK dirtbaggy. A big, good-looking man with a dark beard. A prospective mugger would very likely pass him by and look elsewhere. Of course, the wild-eyed look of the true zealot would be a factor.

Clarice-- that Crisp quote is probably the closest thing to the truth. I'm no expert, but male homosexuality is abnormal behavior. Hows and whys? who knows. For men who have that behavior impulse, I wish nothing but the best of luck finding happiness.

I also have a friend who decided when her son was a toddler that he was gay and raised him that way. (I haven't seen her (or him) in years so I don't know the outcome.) It was truly despicable. No surprise she is a huge liberal.

I can't imagine a loving parent intentionally doing that to a child. My godson cried wanting to be "normal". I told him normal was a setting on the clothes dryer, not a person. Who the hell knows what normal is? I sure don't.

I don't think pork is standard fare at state dinners--not luxurious enough, I think I've seen O eating at BBQ joints so if your point is he doesn't eat it cause he's Moslem I don't think you've got a very persuasive case there.

I can hardly bear to to read about it any more. Obama's willingness to sacrifice everything that our troops endured and all that they accomplished on the altar of domestic politics is so egregiously corrupt. Doing so at the very moment when we were finally in a position to capitalize on the victories paid for in American blood, and effectively abandoning, instead of nurturing, a potentially game changing ally in the region, is malfeasance of tragic proportions.

How could anyone question whether the man who signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has a powerful affinity for pork in all its wondrous forms?
He dreams in bacon and shaves with pork fat.

((I can't imagine a loving parent intentionally doing that to a child. My godson cried wanting to be "normal))

my best friend in high school was gay, he is now dead, died of Aids. he was always slightly effeminate but was popular and well liked and a promising young actor. After high school we went our separate ways and he went deep into the gay culture. We did visit from time to time, and one time he confessed to me that he was extremely unhappy with his life and said oddest thing, "I don't think I am gay." But he didn't leave the life, and his funeral was one of the saddest events I've ever attended.

Actually, FrankJ at IMAO has the positive proof that Obama is a Muslim.

"What would be the easiest way for him to disprove he’s a Muslim? That’s right: Publicly eat a big handful of bacon. But he hasn’t done that. Now, any normal person if ever given any excuse to eat a big handful of bacon would be all over that, so why hasn’t Obama done that constantly? The only logical reason I can think of is that he’s secretly a Muslim."

It is pretty much a slam dunk. What REAL American would not scarf down bacon at every opportunity? Hell, if it were me, I would have an official "bearer of the proof I am not Muslim bacon" guy, who would probably travel with the guy with the football.

Only scrolling this am but let me just say that I caught the interaction by CC with Bret Baier. So just let me say this:

YOU ROCK CC!!!!!

Plus I have this tidbit from Michael Walsh at the Corner, see if he does not hit this out of the park:

“From the inception of the Republic the Democratic Party has been a public enemy — an organization antithetical to our nation’s traditions, civic virtues, and moral values.” In fact, “the party of slavery, segregation, secularism, and sedition has always been in the forefront of everything inimical to the United States of America.”

one time he confessed to me that he was extremely unhappy with his life and said oddest thing, "I don't think I am gay."

Does anybody know when the term "gay" started to be used for homos? I didn't notice the usage until at least the sixties, although that could be a function of where I grew up. Anyway it struck me as a strange term to use for a group with a higher than average suicide rate.

JMHanes at 1227: I couldn't agree more- MALfeasance. Thanks to the bravery, genius and intrepid US military, AQ was slaughtered in Iraq, Iranian agents were rounded up, and thanks to GWB's political courage and Petraeus's diplomacy, an Iraqi nation was ready to sign a military basing agreement that would treat Iraq with the same dignity and respect the US gives to ally NATO nations, South Korea, Australia etc. Instead, because of anti-Bush ideology and personal vanity, 'Bam pissed on Iraq. It was no blunder-- it was intentiional malfeasance. Despicable.

CH-- you are correct-- the 60s. 'Gay' developed after Stonewall Rebellion, and it was meant to be an ALTERNATIVE public lifestyle to repudiate bourgeois norms. So the current Gay powers that be who demand that homosexuality be deemed mainstream and 'normal' are in fact contradicting the original 'gay' movement.

Just chased away two large white-tailed bucks from my tomato plants full of ripening fruit. Needless to say my airedale slept through it.

Posted by: Captain Hate | July 26, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Well, CH, if your B&T is like ours were, good thing s/he was asleep, or, if awake, would have chased those bucks to the next county--to the future--and beyond !

How are your 'maters this year? We are having a great crop. I think next year will only plant the grapes, prolific constantly ripening and wonderful flavor. The big boys, better boys etc, take so darn long to mature and then they are poof!--gone.

As we know, there is only two things money cannot buy, true love and home-grown tomatoes.

I can hardly bear to to read about it any more. Obama's willingness to sacrifice everything that our troops endured and all that they accomplished on the altar of domestic politics is so egregiously corrupt. Doing so at the very moment when we were finally in a position to capitalize on the victories paid for in American blood, and effectively abandoning, instead of nurturing, a potentially game changing ally in the region, is malfeasance of tragic proportions.